You Made It Weird #77: Riki Lindhome

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Riki Lindhome (Garfunkel and Oates, Making It podcast) is one of Pete’s favorite people and a wonderful YMIW guest: hilarious, thoughtful, and a nice sample of Pete just gabbin’ like one of the gals. Gabbin’ Like Gals was the original name of this podcast. JK. Enjoy, you weirdos!!

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♫How long ’til my soul gets it right?
Can any human being ever reach the highest light?
Except for the resting soul
Of Galileo —
King of night vision, king of insight.♫
— “Galileo,” The Indigo Girls (Rites of Passage, 1992)

I forgot to add, (and I know you two only touched on it briefly, but it stuck with me), I think the Riki’s example of the tragic life of a baby in Africa is why the idea of reincarnation can be harmful. They can end up being defense mechanisms people use to protect themselves from a seemingly cruel and uncaring world, but ones that can end up making things worse.

If you’ve ever gone to a charity’s website, you’ll know the lengths they have to go to to make someone feel safe to connect to the cause. They have to present problems in a way that makes them feel urgent, but not impossible. They present case studies instead of statistics, so that donors feel that meaningful change is possible.

The belief in rebirth, or even the reward of the afterlife might not quell the heartstrings when we see suffering in the world, but they can help people console themselves, and say that things will be better in some other time or place.

One thing that bothered me, though, was the casual discussion of your friend’s abuse. A girlfriend who hits you? That’s abuse. And it’s serious. And saying he must be into it reeks of victim blaming. There’s a lot going on in abusive relationships, and it’s not easy to leave. Maybe he could use some more support. Just a thought.